Loveland City Council tells residents to carry fracking moratorium issue

Ballot initiative to impose 2-year wait already submitted

By Craig Young Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Posted:
05/28/2013 10:21:47 PM MDT

Loveland resident Morgan Flannery, left, joins others Tuesday protesting outside the Loveland Municipal Building near Third Street and Washington Avenue against hydraulic fracturing. The Loveland City Council was studying the topic inside.
(
Steve Stoner
)

LOVELAND -- A proposed two-year moratorium on fracking ostensibly would allow the city to bring facts and science to bear on the issue, but emotions gained the upper hand at times Tuesday when the Loveland City Council discussed the topic.

Even before the study session began Tuesday evening, a few opponents of hydraulic fracturing who were protesting outside the Loveland Municipal Building responded heatedly to the arguments of two supporters of the practice.

And inside the City Council Chamber, several council members emotionally condemned some of the emails they had received on the issue.

But all emotions aside, after hearing and discussing a report from city attorney John Duval on the potential impact of a moratorium, the council members agreed to allow residents to be the ones to advance such a proposal.

"Sounds to me like we're going to let the citizens bring it forward," Mayor Cecil Gutierrez said at the end of the meeting.

Because the event was a study session and not an action meeting, the councilors took no vote, instead just voicing their opinions on the matter.

And because it was a study session, the audience members in the full chamber were not allowed to voice their opinions.

About 25 opponents of fracking did that before the meeting, holding signs on the sidewalk along Washington Avenue.

The city has received a proposed ballot measure from residents that would enact a two-year moratorium on the oil and gas industry's practice of hydraulic fracturing inside city limits.

If proponents get enough signatures to place the ordinance on the November ballot and voters approve it, the city would use the two-year pause to study the safety and potential health impacts of fracking.

Duval said he thinks it likely that a moratorium would be challenged in court by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, an oil and gas operator or a mineral rights holder.

"It's questionable whether you can do a moratorium on something you can't regulate," he said but added that he would be prepared to defend such an ordinance.

The council has the option of enacting a moratorium, putting a moratorium on the ballot or allowing residents do it through the initiative process.

Most expressed no interest in the first two choices.

"I say absolutely, go ahead and use the initiative process if that's what you want to do," said council member Hugh McKean, who remarked that fracking arguments seemed to be driven by emotions.

He and other councilors said they look forward to a full discussion and an opportunity for education in the months before the election.

Councilor Joan Shaffer agreed that she had heard emotional appeals from people on both sides of the issue, but also input from people who are well-educated on the matter.

"I really look forward to the community engagement," she said.

If proponents gather enough signatures, they would need to file them with the city clerk by Aug. 19, Duval said.